Cuba is…

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Petrol fumes from all the old cars. Socialist banners everywhere instead of advertisements. Fresh mango juice. Beans and rice. Fresh meat. Crowing cocks early in the morning. Warm weather all year round. The biggest retro car museum in the world. Pastel colored houses. Turquoise water. White sand beaches. Fresh coconuts. Sunny hours spend on the beach. Pina colada. Mojito. Cuba Libre. Cigars. Horse carriages. A weird trend that makes all young guys pluck their eyebrows. Government run restaurants. No Internet or WiFi. Spanish speaking mostly. A lot of car driving through the island. Palm trees. High waves on the Malecón. Music everywhere. Staying in private homes. Salsa dance till the early morning. Enjoying life. Socialist. Wandering around astonished by the Cuban world. A totally different world. Low water pressure in the toilets and showers. Shortage of toilet paper. Kids playing in the streets. Tourists with cameras around their necks. Revolution museum. Che Guevara shown everywhere. More than oldschool when it comes to technology. A place stuck in time. Cracked streets and neglected areas. Laundry hung to dry on the balconies. Roof tops. Lack of technique. Like a different time age.

 

NYC – BERLIN

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(Left overs from the Chinese New Year in Chinatown)

A quick check in from the airport. After 23 days of traveling around USA, Cayman Islands, and Miami, we are now going back to Berlin. As much as I love traveling I am also really excited to go back to Berlin. Not only because it is 9c degrees, which is like a hot summer compared to New York City, but also because Berlin is my home and home is where the heart is.

This weekend my parents, my twin brother, and his girl friend are coming from Copenhagen to visit me, and I can’t wait. It has been two months since I saw my parents, so I am really excited.

We are about to board the plane, so now we just have to go through an eight hour flight… Hopefully I am going to be able to sleep during the long flight. See you on the other side!

caroline1

 

New York Food Guide // Pt. 5

I think this will be my last and not least (pt. 5) New York Food guide for this time. Already excited for the next time!

Le Pain Quotidien(null)

French for “the daily bread”. Le Pain Quotidien operates in many countries worldwide and is represented many places in New York City and for good reason. Le Pain Quotidien serves a great breakfast with a menu card with a wide range of options. Whether you want eggs, granola, pastries, bread, or different orders of sides, Le Pain Quotidien got you. Everything is tasty, the staff is friendly, and the location we were at in Brooklyn Heights was great! With a communal table in the center of the restaurant, Le Pain Quotidien creatives a nice and friendly atmosphere.

121 Montague Street

Dough(null)

I never thought I was the biggest fan of donuts, until I tried the donuts from Dough. After taking the first bite of this heavenly cheesecake donut I picked out, my mind changed immediately and I found out how amazing donuts can taste, it is just a question about if they come from Dough. They are no doubt the best donuts I’ve ever had! Dough is a little hidden gem in Bedstuy, Brooklyn, where donuts are served fresh daily. Dough offers different donuts like dulche de leche, coconut dream, hibiscus or classic glazed donuts. It is possible to enjoy the donuts at dough that also works as a little café or you can take the donuts to go.

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448 Lafayette Avenue

Freeman’s(null)

This is the kind of place where the location and decoration is enough to get me excited. Hidden in a little alley which is rare to find in New York City, Freeman’s is to be found behind a beautiful classic New Yorker window. Not only does Freeman’s have amazing decoration, furniture, and style, but they also serve great food from a very wide menu card.  It is possible to get both breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and drinks here, and some options off the menu card are greek yogurt and fruit, pancakes, eggs, black bean burger, fish, salads, and the hot artichoke dip is a favorite amongst many!

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191 Chrystie Street

caroline1

 

Update from Miami

11004800_10153069962237310_74710416_n 11006148_10153069959267310_1430683493_n 11009034_10153069959357310_1283196039_n 11012284_10153069959372310_863895860_n 11016648_10153069962232310_993306069_nOh the horror – to be without Internet or wifi for eight days. Yes, I survived, and it wasn’t that horrible to be honest. I think many of us could need a few days without an Internet connection. More about that later.

I am now in Miami after flying from Havana to Cayman Islands to Miami. We came last night, had a great dinner and some drinks at the new restaurant Dolce on Collins Avenue. After that we went to our hotel, took a nice, long shower, finally one with a normal water pressure as opposed to the Cuban showers, which all had a very low amount of water coming out of the shower head. After that straight to bed (with our laptops), where I spend hours going through mails, unread blog posts on Bloglovin (223 of them), and Instagram. It was more than appreciated being back to the civilisation and the “real” world, and it is kind of scary how much the Internet means for our lifestyle… While going through all of my unread Bloglovin posts like a slave, I almost started missing Cuba and no WiFi, because it is so much easier to be missing out on something when you just don’t have the ability to be online. Yes, the FOMO is definitely a problem of mine.

I will start writing posts that cover the last week in Cuba, and I still have some posts and pictures from New York that I have to show you too. Stay tuned!

caroline1

A quick hello from The Cayman Islands

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A quick post from Cayman Islands. We arrived yesterday and it is perfect here! Unlike New York City and the -16 degrees, Cayman Islands is 27 degrees and gives us perfect blue water and white beaches instead of New York who gave us a cold and the flu.

I am currently laying on the beach
and it is already clear to me that I need to step up my tanning game. The woman in front of me (the one with the neon colored Furla bag) is the perfect tanner. She has all the required tools, tanning spray, tanning oil, a neon colored bag and bikini, cigarettes, Pink playing on the iPod, and blond bleached hair in a high hair style that would make even Amy Winehouse proud. She is one of the so called tanning queens who probably spent all of her vacations on a beach.

The more I look at her the more amateur I feel in my white, pale winter skin and my three year old bikini. Luckily I have a week on the beach, so who knows – maybe I’ll end up as the new tanning queen?